Myamoto Musashi
One of the fencers was telling an interesting story when we were shooting the breeze on Monday night. He was telling a story about the great Japanese sword master Miyamoto Musashi. Musashi wrote Go Rin No Sho (A book of five rings) which is a classic treatise on Japanese fencing and is entrenched in the modern business culture of Japan as a philosophical guide on how to prevail in any confrontation.
The thing is that Musashi won his duels by doing the unexpected and playing outside the rules. It wasn't that he had tremendous technical skill but that he'd attack by surprise before his opponent was ready. He'd do things like jump out of the bushes on his adversary as they were making there way to the dueling location, or he'd throw his sword scabbard at them as they were doing ritual bows before the fight. He'd show up late for a fight and deliberately charge at his foe from an unexpected direction without any preliminaries, drop from a tree, etc. In short, he won a lot of his fights by being a complete asshole and disrespecter of "the rules".
My buddy told the tale about how Musashi won his first fight as a young teenager against a sword master in the local village. Essentially, the sword master had set himself up and had a sign in the village square challenging all comers to cross swords with him. Musashi, who had no training at this point, saw the sign and defaced it with rude graffiti saying that the sword master was a hack, had no talent etc, and that he, Musashi could beat him any day of the week. Naturally, when the sword master saw this he was infuriated and sought to teach this young upstart a lesson that he'd never forget.
Musashi's uncle, upon learning about this, was horrified and in an effort to save his foolish nephew's life brought Musashi before the sword master in order to make a humble apology. Musashi's uncle bowed and scraped to the master, humbly asking forgiveness for the rash actions of a foolish child. The master was mollified and agreed to spare Musashi's life provided that Musashi abased himself and uttered the most humble of apologies. Musashi was then brought before the master. At first he was nervous and humble, but then Musashi proceeded to repeat all the insults, telling the master that he was no swordsman, was incompetent, etc. and that Musashi was in no way going to apologise.
The master seething with rage, sought to come up with some way of severly punishing this impudent little boy. As he was sputtering in ire, trying to come up with something to say, Musashi leapt upon him and beat him into submission with his walking stick. The tale doesn't tell whether Musashi killed the master or whether the master left town in total shame at being bested by an untrained boy.
I've read the book several times. It's a quick read, and the forward is longer than Musashi's actual text. The irony about it is that there is nothing really specific about sword technique in it apart from some disconnected little tidbits that don't really create a fencing system. There are some great general concepts about conflict, but it's vague. The more I think about it, I think that given Musashi's mischievous nature, the book may be a colossal joke played on us by someone who refused to play fair.
The thing is that Musashi won his duels by doing the unexpected and playing outside the rules. It wasn't that he had tremendous technical skill but that he'd attack by surprise before his opponent was ready. He'd do things like jump out of the bushes on his adversary as they were making there way to the dueling location, or he'd throw his sword scabbard at them as they were doing ritual bows before the fight. He'd show up late for a fight and deliberately charge at his foe from an unexpected direction without any preliminaries, drop from a tree, etc. In short, he won a lot of his fights by being a complete asshole and disrespecter of "the rules".
My buddy told the tale about how Musashi won his first fight as a young teenager against a sword master in the local village. Essentially, the sword master had set himself up and had a sign in the village square challenging all comers to cross swords with him. Musashi, who had no training at this point, saw the sign and defaced it with rude graffiti saying that the sword master was a hack, had no talent etc, and that he, Musashi could beat him any day of the week. Naturally, when the sword master saw this he was infuriated and sought to teach this young upstart a lesson that he'd never forget.
Musashi's uncle, upon learning about this, was horrified and in an effort to save his foolish nephew's life brought Musashi before the sword master in order to make a humble apology. Musashi's uncle bowed and scraped to the master, humbly asking forgiveness for the rash actions of a foolish child. The master was mollified and agreed to spare Musashi's life provided that Musashi abased himself and uttered the most humble of apologies. Musashi was then brought before the master. At first he was nervous and humble, but then Musashi proceeded to repeat all the insults, telling the master that he was no swordsman, was incompetent, etc. and that Musashi was in no way going to apologise.
The master seething with rage, sought to come up with some way of severly punishing this impudent little boy. As he was sputtering in ire, trying to come up with something to say, Musashi leapt upon him and beat him into submission with his walking stick. The tale doesn't tell whether Musashi killed the master or whether the master left town in total shame at being bested by an untrained boy.
I've read the book several times. It's a quick read, and the forward is longer than Musashi's actual text. The irony about it is that there is nothing really specific about sword technique in it apart from some disconnected little tidbits that don't really create a fencing system. There are some great general concepts about conflict, but it's vague. The more I think about it, I think that given Musashi's mischievous nature, the book may be a colossal joke played on us by someone who refused to play fair.